Thriller

"No mere mortal can resist... the e-vil of the Thriller!"

— Vincent Price, Michael Jackson's "Thriller"

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A thriller is a genre in visual media and literature which focuses on action, fast pacing, tension, and suspense. The conflicts are usually between desperate heroes and powerful antagonists who outmatch them by a large margin. Frequent location changes, time shortage, and Cliffhangers are extremely common.

Thrillers can overlap with almost any other genre. They are more defined by their plot and devices than by their content. They can be identified by the thrills the work gives to the reader or viewer.

Modern incarnations of Thrillers seem to overlap more and more often with the Horror and Science Fiction genres, leading to a misclassification of all Thrillers as being Horror, Science Fiction, or both.

Not to be confused with either the Michael Jackson album or the old Boris Karloff-hosted anthology series, nor yet the 1970s British anthology series. Although the Michael Jackson music video does slightly fit in.

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Subgenres

• British Conspiracy Thriller
• Conspiracy Thriller
• Genius Thriller
• Paranoid Thriller
• Psychological Thriller

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Related genres

• Horror
• Mystery Fiction
• Science Fiction
• Spy Fiction

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Tropes often associated with the genre

• Cliffhanger
• Mad Lib Thriller Title
• The Reveal
• Title In: Used to make sure the audience doesn't get confused by frequent location changes.
• The Un-Reveal
• What Cliffhanger

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Examples

Anime and Manga

• AFTERLOST
• Canaan
• Death Note
• D-Live!!
• Kagewani, overlapping with horror.
• Monster, overlapping with horror.
• Ultraman
• Yami No Aegis

Film

• 10 to Midnight
• 21 Bridges
• 22 Bullets, overlapping with Action.
• 28 Days Later, overlapping with Horror.
• .45
• Accident
• Adam Chaplin
• The Aggression Scale, overlapping with Action.
• All the Money in the World
• The Ambulance, also a comedy.
• Angel, overlapping with Action.
• Anthropoid, overlapping with historical drama and war film.
• Apartment Zero
• Archenemy
• Atomic Blonde, overlapping with Action.
• Atomic Train
• The Bank, overlapping with drama.
• Berserk!
• A Bittersweet Life
• The Black Dahlia
• Black Sunday, overlapping with Action.
• Blooded
• Body
• The Bourne Series, overlapping with Action.
• The Boy Next Door
• Brake
• Buried
• Burning Bright
• The Call
• The Chain Reaction is a Thriller mixed with action and Disaster Movie elements.
• Charade
• Circle
• The Clovehitch Killer
• Code 8
• Cold Comes the Night, a crime thriller.
• Cold Sweat
• Coma
• Confessions of a Psycho Cat
• The Conspiracy, overlapping with Horror.
• Criminal
• Cry Wolf (1947)
• The Cube series
  • Cube, overlapping with Science Fiction and Horror.
  • Cube 2: Hypercube
  • Cube Zero
• Dark Asylum
• The Dark Knight Trilogy is a Thriller mixed with superhero and neo-noir. Each of the movies qualifies in different ways:
  • Batman Begins fits this genre in the second half of the movie, as the first half focused on Batman's origins.
  • The Dark Knight is a crime Thriller throughout the whole movie.
  • The Dark Knight Rises is a Thriller mixed with Disaster Movie elements.
• Dark Waters
• The Day the Earth Caught Fire, overlapping with Disaster Movie.
• Detonator (2003)
• Don't Breathe
• Don't Hang Up
• Downrange
• Duel
• Eloise
• Escape Room (2017) - overlapping with Horror.
• Even Lambs Have Teeth - overlaps with Horror.
• Everly- overlapping with action.
• Ex Machina, - overlapping with Science-Fiction.
• Fair Game - overlapping with action.
• Fatale
• Femme Fatale
• Freeway -overlapping with comedy.
• Getaway Plan
• The Gift (2015) a psychological thriller
• Goliath Awaits
• The Good Doctor (2011)
• Good Neighbors
• The Guest , overlapping with Mystery and Action.
• Hard Candy
• Heat
• Hell Drivers
• Hidden
• Highwaymen
• Hit Team
• The Hunt for Red October
• The Hunted (1995)
• Intruders
• I Saw What You Did
• The Island (1980)
• Jacob's Ladder, overlapping with horror.
• Jack's Back, overlapping with Supernatural Thriller.
• Jack the Ripper (1976)
• Julia X, overlaps with Horror.
• Juncture
• Jurassic Park
• The Colony (2016): Overlaps with historical drama.
• The Little Girl Who Lives Down the Lane
• Little Woods
• The Loft
• A Lonely Place to Die
• Kindergarten Cop, overlapping with comedy.
• The Mad Magician
• Man Vs, overlapping with science fiction and horror.
• The Matrix, overlapping with Cyberpunk.
• M.F.A.
• Mom, a crime thriller overlapping with drama.
• Money Monster
• Naked Fear
• Nerve
• No Escape
• No Tears for the Dead
• Numb
• The Occupant
• Open Grave, overlapping with Horror.
• Perfect Assassins, overlapping with Action and Mystery
• Poison Ivy (1992)
• Poker Night
• The Power (1968), overlapping with Science Fiction.
• Preservation, overlapping with Horror.
• The President's Last Bang
• The Professional, overlapping with Action and Criminal Procedural.
• The Purge series.
  • The Purge, overlapping with Horror and Science Fiction.
  • The Purge: Anarchy
  • The Purge: Election Year
  • The First Purge
• The Quiet
• Quick
• Rattle The Cage
• Rear Window
• Red Hill
• Replicas
• Reservoir Dogs, overlapping with Crime And Punishment.
• Resurrection (1999), overlapping with Horror.
• Rollercoaster, overlapping with Action.
• Rolling Thunder, overlapping with crime, action and Exploitation Film.
• The Roommate
• Runaway Jury, overlapping with Crime and Punishment, and Law Procedural.
• A Score to Settle, overlapping with Action.
• Scream and Scream Again, overlapping with Sci-Fi Horror.
• Sea of Love
• Self Defense
• The Shadow Men overlapping with Science Fiction.
• Shiri
• Shooter
• Shut In, overlapping with Horror.
• The Silence of the Lambs, overlapping with Horror.
• Siren (2010), a psychological thriller overlapping with horror.
• Sisters of Death
• The Sixth Sense
• Skin Trade, overlapping with Action.
• Sleepers
• Sneakers
• The Snowman (2017), overlapping with Horror.
• Solace
• Songbird
• Son of a Gun
• Split
• Stag
• Strangers on a Train
• Suddenly
• The Suppressor
• Surveillance
• Targets
• Ten Dead Men, overlapping with Action.
• Tesis
• The Thieves, overlapping with Action.
• Ties That Bind (2006), overlapping with Drama.
• Ties That Bind (2010), overlapping with Mystery and Crime.
• Tiger House, overlappping with Crime.
• The Transporter, overlapping with Action.
• Trap For Cinderella
• Trauma Center
• Triple Threat
• Trust No 1
• Unbreakable
• Stay
• Vitals
• Vivarium
• Vows of Deceit - also known as Deadly Matrimony
• Welcome Home
• Widows
• Wild Things
• The Wolf's Call , overlapping with Drama.
• You Were Never Really Here
• Youth of the Beast

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Live Action TV

• Bosch
• Braquo
• 20 Minutes, overlapping with drama.
• Cleverman
• Colony, overlapping with drama and science fiction.
• Deutschland 83, overlapping with spy fiction.
• Dublin Murders
• Fauda
• The Flight Attendant
• Liar, overlapping with crime drama.
• Locked Up, overlapping with prison drama.
• Medici: Masters of Florence: overlapping with historical fiction.
• Scandal, overlapping with politics and drama.
• Shots Fired
• Snowpiercer
• Spotless
• The Man in the High Castle
• Six
• Tehran
• Tyrant
• War of the Worlds (2019)

Web Video

• The Hire

Video Games

• Fast & Furious Crossroads
• Gods Will Be Watching, a Point And Click thriller with some Science Fiction elements.
• Metal Gear is a series where every installment tries to replicate feel of a thriller movie. Notably, pretty much every game features a nuclear threat, Metal Gear Solid ends with a typical thriller trope where you fight the main villain with your bare hands, and both Solid 1 and Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty are based "Die Hard" on an X premise, where you're dopped alone - with no weapons - into a facility overtaken by terrorists.
• Gunpoint attempts to create an interactive noir thriller, dropping the player into a near future town of West Point, which used to be a home of a thriving gun industry - but after a new gun control bill, industry has crashed and burned, and few remaining businesses became extremely ruthless to survive. Notably, the gameplay is based around outsmarting enemies and setting traps for them by hacking electric appliances, and game features mechanics that resemble thriller tropes, like ability to tackle people unarmed (even through a window, several floors down!) or hold them on gunpoint (as the title implies).
• Late Shift
• The Quiet Man
• Blood & Truth

Western Animation

• Gravity Falls
• The Hollow

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